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In the Garden: Perfect presents

The holiday season boasts a bounty of great gift ideas for gardeners on your shopping list.

GardenWorks’ Leanne Johnson shows off a gardener’s Christmas trug packed with presents that would be enjoyed by novice and seasoned green thumbs alike.

Photograph by: Jason Payne
, VANCOUVER SUN

What’s the perfect Christmas gift for the gardener in your life?

I am not thinking here of the botanical connoisseur/specialist — the rhododendron/fuchsia/rose/bonsai/tropical plant fanatic — although I will offer a few ideas for them, too, later in this story.

No, the person I am thinking of here is your typical weekend gardener; enthusiastic, but not obsessed, informed but not likely to talk your ear off about rare and unusual plant species, interested, but never going to disappear for a plant study weekend.

Yes, in other words, your typical, happy-go-lucky, friendly neighbourhood seasonal gardener. Now what would that person love to get as a garden gift for Christmas?

I like the idea of putting together a basket of useful goodies: garden gloves, kneelers, pruners, trowel, twine for tying up plants, plant markers, packets of seeds and so on.

It certainly put a smile on my face when I got this kind of compiled gift one year.

To see how this could work, I popped into my local GardenWorks store on Lougheed Highway in Burnaby last week and started gathering. It was fun.

First, I picked out a nice red garden tub, also known as a trug. These durable plastic tubs are incredibly useful in all sorts of ways in the garden.

I have at least three and I use them for collecting debris when weeding or deadheading or pruning or raking leaves.

I also use them for carrying soil or to save making a mess when I’m filling up small pots and putting plants in them. They are also useful when you want to save dug-up soil and keep it nearby for backfilling when planting perennials or shrubs.

This is so much better than heaping the soil on the side where it can crush other plants.

Made of tough weatherproof material and nylon mesh, this has 12 exterior pockets and makes an excellent container for packing pruners, trowels, gloves, seeds, twine and so on. It costs $24.95.

But back to filling my dandy trug.

Next, I spotted some handsome black cast-iron hand tools with wooden handles for $7.99 each. You get a deal if you buy three.

You can never have enough trowels or planters in my experience.

Further on, I tossed in a couple of white-flowered hellebores in red pots, along with an amaryllis. Every gardener I know loves both these plants.

The hellebores will give pleasure popped into a container by the front door until spring and then can be relocated into the garden.

The amaryllis is a no-fuss project that delivers a great reward in the form of a magnificent red, white or pink flower in the dreary dark days of January. You can’t go wrong adding these two items.

I love old-fashioned watering cans. I found a beautiful bright yellow one for $24. The nice thing about this is that it is functional, but it would also serve as an attractive decorative item when not in use. Watering is itself therapeutic, I reckon, so with this item comes the added gift of mental relaxation.

Kneelers are a little nerdy, I can hear you say, but they work beautifully. If you’ve ever spent time down on your knees planting bulbs or weeding for long periods, you will know how painful it can be. Kneelers, or kneeling pads, are a smart gift. I think the recipient will kiss you for this present.

I love cute stocking stuffers. Twine or wire twists for holding up vines or floppy perennials are always welcome.

Elegant plant markers are another great gift. At GardenWorks, I spotted some small, brown spade plant markers for $2.99 each that I would use in my garden. I added them all to the trug.

Gloves are essential. I have piles of them, but I always appreciate getting new ones. You can go high or low price-wise, colourful or plain, with this item.

I like Watson Gloves, especially the Botanically Correct variety with the green rubber palms and breathable fabric back. They cost $8.99.

At this point, Leanne Johnson, GardenWorks’ chief operating officer, caught up with me and decided to join in the fun of helping me pick out gifts.

She told me how she makes no apology for giving garden gifts at Christmas to all her friends.

“People can expect to get garden gifts from me. And they delight in it. They are always beautiful gifts. People adore them.”

Johnson says she also loves receiving gardening gifts herself at Christmas, despite working in a garden store year round.

“My favourite thing to get is a garden trug. I use them every time I am out in the garden. They are absolutely fantastic.” She was impressed that I had already pick one out.

“And near and dear to my heart is getting English garden magazines for Christmas. My favourite is BBC Gardeners’ World.

“And I love it when someone renews my subscription to the RHS (Royal Horticultural Society) because then I get a free subscription to their wonderful magazine, too.”

This made me think about how glad I was to get a membership to VanDusen Botanical Garden one year for Christmas. That’s a neat gift, one that you can expand for the whole family. Go to www.vandusengarden.org for details.

Johnson says whenever she gives a gift, she also likes to use a terra cotta or brushed copper plant tag as a label. She finds it a cute way to add value and make the present more personal.

“For $100, you can really put together a special package of items. Really, the sky’s the limit, but you can also find great stocking stuffers for $10 or less.”

Wandering around, I next spotted the Gardener’s Hollow Leg, a tubular bag that cinches around your waist to provide the perfect waste bag for clippings from deadheading or you can also use it for picking fruit. It sells for $29.97. It’s a nice gift for an amateur orchardist or food gardener.

All gardeners love getting new pruners. Felco and Fiskars are great brands, but my favourites at the moment are German-made Lowe’s anvil pruners. To get one of these, you need to call Langley-based Big Bear Tools at 604-626-4994.

To finish off, I couldn’t resist tossing in a quirky bearded gnome. I know, I know. Very non-U. I see Nancy Mitford turning in her grave. But, hey, I think it’s funny to find a gnome lurking in the hosta patch. I like ones that are clearly workers, with a shovel or wheelbarrow, not the pipe-smokers. Does that help, Nancy? The one I picked cost $49.99.

What to give serious gardeners?

I reckon they’d love a copy of Bill Terry’s book Beyond the Blue TouchWood ($24.95), about his journey to Tibet in 2009 to hunt for the blue poppy. A retired CBC executive, Terry lives on the Sunshine Coast. It is a personal story of triumph and optimism that will inspire and excite knowledgeable gardeners who appreciate the uniqueness and ethereal beauty of this special poppy.

Or how about a time-lapse camera from Lee Valley Tools fro $99.95? You can use this to capture flowers opening and closing, bird, bees and butterflies in motion around your garden, or you could create a video of your garden as it evolves through the seasons. It’s a great study tool.

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